Bitter and Sweet
by Gamma Orionis
Summary: Sometimes love is painful enough to kill, and sometimes it is so sweet that you never want anything to change... Bellamort drabbles, written for Lolaaa's Your Favourite Character Scenario Challenge/Competition on the HPFC forum.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: Written for Lolaaaa's Your Favourite Couple: Scenarios Challenge/Competition on the HPFC forum.

_Every 5 days I'll post a scenario for you to put your favourite couple into. Five days is a short amount of time you say? It can be any length between 100 words and 2000 words._

More Gamma drabbles, then! Enjoy!

* * *

_Person A is engaged to someone else. Person B tries to win them over._

500 words.

)O(

Bellatrix could not stop touching the engagement ring on her finger as she sat at the meeting and idly listened to the Dark Lord discuss which Aurors constituted a threat and should be dealt with. It was so constant a reminder of Rodolphus, and every time her fingers brushed it, she felt an unsettling mix of pride at finally being married, relief that it was Rodolphus instead of one of the miserable old men her father had been considering, and frustration that it was not _another man_ that she was marrying.

"Bellatrix."

The meeting had ended and the other Death Eaters were on their way out. Bellatrix looked up quickly, then inclined her head when she saw the Dark Lord standing over her. She stood and sketched a quick curtsey.

"My Lord."

"I take it you've been proposed to." He looked down at her hand, and Bellatrix thought she might have heard a note of distaste – _jealousy? No, that was far too much to hope for _ – in his voice.

"Yes, my Lord. By Rodolphus," she said, keeping her eyes down modestly.

His hand travelled slowly to rest upon her waist, pulling her closer to him. A thrill travelled through her body – _oh, Merlin, he's _touching_ me_!

"You don't want Rodolphus."

"Why do you say that?" She tried and failed to sound careless and nonchalant, but her heart was beating quickly and his cool hand just above the curve of her hip only served to excite her. She swallowed hard, then managed, "He is a perfectly respectable gentleman – and, of course, in service to you, my Lord… I should think you would approve of our marriage," she added, and he clearly did not miss the note of bitterness in her tone.

The Dark Lord snorted softly. "Approve of your marriage? Hardly…"

"Why not, my Lord?" she managed, her voice trembling.

"I should think the answer should be obvious…"

Bellatrix opened her mouth to speak, but before a word could pass her lips, his fingers had knotted in her hair and yanked her head back and he was kissing – _Merlin, kissing me!_

She melted instantly against him, not daring to raise her hands to touch him or even move her lips against his, just standing almost limply in his grip.

At last, he pulled away, and she whispered in a cracked voice, "Master… if I had ever thought that you desired me…"

"I do," he said, and his voice was as calm as if he was discussing the Aurors once again, not speaking to the woman he had just all but swept off her feet. "And the thought of sharing you with Rodolphus does not please me."

It pained Bellatrix physically to say it, but she managed to whisper, "I dare not turn Rodolphus away now… but, my Lord… if I could…" Her voice caught slightly, and she was scarcely able to say, "If I had a choice, I would rather have you than him… I would choose you in an instant."


	2. Chapter 2

_Couple has the worst disagreement they will ever have._

400 words.

)O(

"Bellatrix…" the Dark Lord murmured, running one hand very slowly across her jaw. She trembled with excitement at his touch, mentally begging him to touch her more, let his hands move down to her breasts, but he simply continued to stroke her throat with delicate fingers.

"Yes, my Lord?" she whispered breathlessly.

"You would do anything for me, would you not?"

"I would, my Lord," she answered instantly. "I live to serve your…" her voice dropped into a soft, sensual purr as she looked at him with a very small, very suggestive smile, "_desires_."

"Good," he said, and his hand fell away. "Then I wish for you to torture Narcissa."

It took Bellatrix a moment to register what he had said, and then her eyes went wide. "My Lord? My… my sister? But Master- _why?_ She has displeased you?"

"Not her. Lucius. But it would be a far more effective method of demonstrating the weight of his errors to torture his wife than him, I think…"

"You… Master, no…"

"You have said that you will do anything that I demand of you. I demand this, and so, you _shall_ do it." He grabbed her shoulders, face inches away from hers, glaring viciously.

"My Lord, I cannot!" Bellatrix cried, struggling against his hold.

"You can," he hissed, "and you will. You will _not_ defy me, do you understand?"

"She is my sister! My Lord, I could never hurt her… she is only a girl…" Bellatrix knew that such pleading was futile, and that with time, she would give in to him, as she always did, but she needed to argue. She couldn't just _agree_ to torture her own flesh and blood…

"Lucius Malfoy must be punished," the Dark Lord told her.

"Then… my Lord, please, I implore you, punish him! Do not hurt my sister…"

"This is most unseemly behaviour for a Death Eater, Bellatrix," he said icily. "You cannot allow your petty attachments to others impede you in following my orders. If I order you to torture your sister, then you should be proud that I entrust you with such a task."

"My Lord…"

"There will be no discussion on the matter."

He did not once raise his voice, did not slap her or hurt her, but Bellatrix felt as though her heart had been ripped out. How could her master _ever_ ask her to decide between himself and Narcissa?


	3. Chapter 3

_Couple reminisces_

)O(

"My Lord, please…" Bellatrix bowed her head when he looked at her, but she wanted desperately to be able to meet his eyes, to reach for him and be held in his arms, and she had to pause and blink back tears before she had control of herself again. "My Lord… what have I done to anger you since the escape? I try so hard to please you, and yet you do not spare me so much as a glance…"

"I spare no glances for my Death Eaters, Bellatrix. It is nothing less than your duty to do everything to please me – you deserve no further recognition for it."

"My Lord…" she whispered. "You used to… we were once… before you– before the Potter boy, my Lord, do you not remember how things were between us?"

As soon as the words had left Bellatrix's mouth, she was aware that she had crossed a line. Mention of Harry Potter was strictly forbidden, and besides that, she knew that she ought not to _dare_ to presume to tell the Dark Lord how to treat her.

"Be glad that I speak to you at all," he said coldly. "Do not ask for more."


	4. Chapter 4

_Couple discusses their future._

)O(

"What will happen now, my Lord?" Bellatrix asked in a breathless, tremulous voice. She was shaking from pure excitement, the Dark Mark freshly inscribed upon the flesh of her arm, and she gazed longingly from it to her master. Surely now, now that she belonged to him properly…

"Are you expecting something, Bellatrix?" he asked sardonically. "Do you expect a reward of some sort for pledging your life to me?"

"No, my Lord, nothing of the sort!" she cried. "I only meant…"

"What, Bellatrix? What is it you want from me, then? Do not lie, I know that you have desires that you believe me to be willing to fulfil…"

"I–" Her voice cracked and tears of shame began to burn her eyes – she was only just able to blink them back. "It is… I only…"

"Speak, Bellatrix!"

"I desire you, my Lord!" she cried, in an agony of mortification. A tear broke free of her lashes and she dashed it away. "And I only hoped that perhaps – perhaps if I served you well, I might… for a reward…" She trailed off pathetically.

The Dark Lord glared at her with a look that sent shivers down her spine while she shrunk away in pure terror. She had never seen her master looking so angry with her. "I am sorry, my Lord, I did not mean to presume… please forgive me, Master, I beg of you…"

"Silence."

Bellatrix shut her mouth immediately and stared imploringly at him, trembling from fear, and he considered her. She did not dare to meet his eyes, but instead focussed on the floor just before him, glancing up worriedly every few moments. The pause seemed to last for hours.

"Someday, perhaps," he said at last, quite quietly. "Someday you may be rewarded as you desire."


	5. Chapter 5

_Your couple finds a place that becomes 'their place'_

)O(

"My chambers, Bellatrix."

Her face flushed in pleasure and anticipation. "Yes, my Lord," she murmured, quickly dropping into a curtsey. He nodded his head slightly in apparent approval, and beckoned her with a graceful movement of his hand, leading her up the stairs. She followed him timidly.

"May I ask you a question, my Lord?" she asked tentatively.

He stopped, turning back from his chamber and regarding her with a cool, slightly suspicious eye. Bellatrix swallowed, her bravery draining away.

"You may ask," he told her. "I shall not promise to answer."

"Of course, my Lord." She bit her lip, searching for the proper way to phrase her question, then finally, in a slightly choked voice, she asked, "Have you had other women here?"

The question seemed to surprise him. "Why do you ask, Bellatrix?"

"I only… forgive me…" she murmured, wringing her hands. "I only meant…"

"You wonder if you are more than one of a string of women… yes?"

"Yes," she murmured.

His lips twitched and he shook his head.

"If it pleases you, Bellatrix," he told her, "then no other women have been allowed into my chambers. You may think of yourself as _special_, if you wish."


	6. Chapter 6

_Something bad happens to one half of your couple, the other half attempts to help._

400 words.

)O(

Bellatrix hovered two paces behind the Dark Lord while Harry Potter stood before them. The tension in the forest was so thick that she felt as though she might burst from sheer excitement. A tiny whine escaped her lips and her breast heaved with every deep gasp of air she took in.

The Dark Lord raised his wand slowly, almost tentatively, and then pointed it at the boy.

"_Avada Kedavra._"

The words, and the blast of brilliant green light that followed, split the air like a knife, and Bellatrix let out a triumphant cry that turned to one of shock almost immediately, for scarcely had the spell left her Master's lips than he crumpled.

Bellatrix pressed her hand over her mouth, for she had seen murder after murder and _never_ did the murderer collapse when he cast the spell. She threw Rodolphus aside and flung herself down beside her Master.

"My Lord…"

He lay still and she was sure her heart stopped. If he was killed, she would not be able to stand it, she would not be able to go on…

But then he stirred, and Bellatrix felt intense relief was through her.

"My Lord…" Her voice softened, and she dipped her head so that her hair would hide her tender smile from all but him. She extended her hands, reaching for him – in her madness, perhaps she thought to draw him into an embrace. "My Lord…"

"That will do."

He sat up, and as the other Death Eaters retreated, Bellatrix scrambled to his aid, her hands fluttering clumsily against his body in her attempts to help him up. He pushed them away impatiently.

"My Lord, let me–"

"I do not require assistance."

The coldness in his voice was all too familiar – it was what Bellatrix heard when she had overstepped her boundaries and he needed to remind her that she was still his servant before she was his bedmate.

He rose slowly to his feet, Bellatrix staying by his side, though she did not extend another hand to help him, and then he breathed deeply and looked away from her, to the corpse of Harry Potter.

"The boy… is he dead?"

Bellatrix looked at the boy too, but her heart stung from the snub, and she wished desperately that, just once, the Dark Lord would pay as much mind to her as he did to Harry Potter.


	7. Chapter 7

_One half of your couple develops some sort of addiction._

100 words.

)O(

Bellatrix did not like the effect that the Potter boy had on her Lord.

Since the Dark Lord had risen again, Potter had been all that he spoke of, all that – she presumed – he so much as _thought_ of, and every time he mentioned him, Bellatrix felt sick.

_Why do you think so much of him and so little of _us_, my Lord? Why so much interest in a strange, mediocre little boy and so little in your own Death Eaters?_

But she knew why.

Potter was her Lord's addiction, his obsession, as much as the Dark Lord was Bellatrix's.

* * *

_Also for Round One of the Shot Put event in the 2012 Hogwarts Games – write a 100-word drabble about your OTP._


	8. Chapter 8

_One half of your couple makes the other half jealous._

200 words.

)O(

Rodolphus did not deserve Bellatrix.

The Dark Lord was not prone to fits of jealousy – least of all about women, who were apt to bore him and who were not, in his estimation, worth agonizing over – but he could scarcely stand to see Bellatrix and Rodolphus together.

The way he simpered over her was sickening, and the teary, childish look in his eyes when she pushed him away only served to make him look even more pathetic than the Dark Lord already thought him to be.

_Foolish man. Useless man._

But whenever he so much as laid his hand upon Bellatrix, the Dark Lord's urge was to curse him, to reduce him to a mess upon the ground, to prove to him without any shadow of doubt that Bellatrix belonged to her Master, not to him.

He disliked feeling that way. He should not – _and he did not, did not_ – feel threatened by one of his own Death Eaters in a matter as trivial as this.

_She is mine,_ he wanted to tell Rodolphus, every time that he saw him with Bellatrix. _She is mine and not yours. She will never be yours. So take your hands off of her._


End file.
